The Chestnuts 1882 - 1887

The Chestnuts 1882 - 1887

Children's education

In the early 1800s, education was unregulated and inaccessible to many. Only about a third of working men could read and write, even fewer women. Many children began working long hours as young as five. Large working-class families relied on their income, and schools were costly or unavailable.

The wealthy sent their children to elite schools like Eton, Harrow, and Rugby, while others attended grammar schools or had private tutors. The poor relied on charity schools funded by religious groups and benefactors, Sunday schools, or dame schools—small, informal schools run by women in their homes. Sarah Cook founded such a school at The Chestnuts in 1823.

Dame School, Thomas George Webster 1845.

The Factory Acts (1833–1847) restricted child labour and promoted education. The 1870 Education Act made schooling compulsory and established state-funded schools for children aged 5 to 12. By 1880, about 75% of working-class men and women were literate.

Education in St Ives

In History of St Ives 1796–1930 (p. 48+), St Ivian John Skeeles lists 32 schools and teachers in 19th-century St Ives, mostly dame schools or their male equivalents. The town's weekly livestock market attracted businessmen whose children needed schooling. Below are details of three such schools.

In 1806, Anna Rugeley ran a girls’ school. Her husband, Henry, was a linen and woollen draper. In 1810, he expanded into funeral services, purchasing an entirely new and exceedingly neat hearse and advertising that funerals are completely furnished, on the shortest notice, with all possible punctuality and attention. Henry went bankrupt in 1811, and his assets were auctioned off.

Within two years, Anna reopened her school at Manchester House, later the Grammar School. In 1814, Henry opened a boys’ school despite no teaching background. At the time, there was no regulation. Anyone could start a school if they attracted pupils. 

In 1820, Anna moved to Priory House Seminary, on Priory Road, where she could board students. In her January advertisement, she added a practical note:

P.S. - Mrs R. would be happy to place her son in any Gentleman's Academy, who has a daughter to send in exchange.

Henry became a property agent in 1825 and hosted grand social events. By 1828, he was bankrupt again. Anna relocated her school to Slepe Hall, charging 20–30 guineas a year (equivalent to £2,000–£3,000 today). Henry died in 1833, but Anna’s school thrived. She offered a broad curriculum, including ornamental needlework, harp, astronomy, oil painting, and language instruction by Parisian and German governesses.

By 1841, daughters Anna and Isabella taught alongside their brother John, a clergyman. With additional staff, they had 26 pupils aged five to fifteen. Anna retired in 1858 at age 73, leaving the school to Miss Wilson.

In the 1850s, William Roome left London, where he ran a small school. Though in his 50s, he remained ambitious. By 1855, William opened a new school at Westwood House near the Parish Church, employing his sons.

He tailored the curriculum to rural needs, offering land surveying, commercial accounts, and natural sciences with the use of extensive apparatus. Agricultural Chemistry a prominent part of Study to Youths intended for Farming Pursuits featured prominently. In 1858, the school was named Westwood House Classical, Mathematical and Commercial School. By 1860, it had moved to Bridge Street, where five teenage boys were taught by William and a 19-year-old assistant. He retired sometime later.

British Schools were a Nonconformist alternative to those run by the Church of England. A single teacher oversaw many pupils, using older students to help teach younger ones under supervision.

Potto Brown, a committed Nonconformist, funded local British Schools to educate working-class children. In 1839, he built schools in St Ives for 120 pupils at a cost of £2,000 (around £250,000 today), plus ongoing support. Both the boys’ and girls’ schools featured swings, a see-saw, and other amusements. In 1843, during a public examination at the boys’ school, it was praised as being in “so prosperous a condition” without government aid or state control.

Schooling at The Chestnuts

In 1882, Thomas Payne sold The Chestnuts to James Allpress Smith, a Londoner who had opened a general store in Bridge Street in the early 1870s. He purchased the house as an investment and rented it out.

John Skeeles mentions Sarah Cook's school in 1823. He also records a Miss Clark succeeded by Miss Pattrick. Miss Clark’s school ran in the mid-1870s at The Chestnuts, but no records remain. The longest-running school at The Chestnuts, and possibly in St Ives, was Hannah Pattrick’s.

In 1882, tenant Hannah Pattrick opened her Ladies’ Boarding and Day School. Her first advertisement is the earliest known reference to the house as The Chestnuts. The photo below shows two towering horse chestnut trees inspiring the name.

The Chestnuts, late 1800s.

Hannah Pattrick, education innovator

Born in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, in 1854, Hannah Pattrick was the second youngest of seven children—six girls and one boy—born to George and Harriet Pattrick. The family had moved from Wisbech a decade earlier with their three eldest children. George, a plumber, glazier, and painter, was well respected in the village.

Tragedy struck in 1866 when George died at age 51. Hannah was 12. By 1871, the family had relocated from Long Sutton’s business class on the High Street to Chapel Bridge, where homes were occupied by agricultural labourers and aged couples living on the parish.  Hannah's mother died that year, also aged 51. Hannah was 15.

At the time of her mother’s death, Hannah (16) was one of the oldest boarding pupils at Castle School in Wisbech, along with her youngest sister, Kate (10), and twenty-nine other pupils. The schoolmistress was their aunt, Sarah Clarke Harman. 

Both girls were seen as promising students, sent to a private school while older siblings worked. It’s likely that tradesmen relatives in Wisbech helped support their education.

Hannah Pattrick, late 1800s. (Source: Norris Museum)

Hannah began teaching in St Ives, likely in the early 1870s during her late teens. She taught Harold Strange Turner, later Mayor of St Ives, at a school in The Quadrant run by Miss Munday. At the 1923 prize-giving at The Chestnuts, she remembered the Mayor as a very naughty boy, and very often she knew there was a lot of naughtiness going on behind the scenes, of which he was the ringleader. In reply, Harold said one of his earliest memories  was of trotting round the Quadrant in a little holland suit and white socks. Born in 1866, he would have been under eight at the time, suggesting Hannah was no older than 20 when she taught him.

By 1881, Hannah, aged 26, was working as a governess and domestic servant at Ragnall Hall, Lincolnshire, where George Cartwright farmed 620 acres with 25 men. She taught the family’s two teenage daughters and a six-year-old son, perhaps testing her early ideas on education.

Hannah's school

Back in St Ives by 1882, Hannah (28) may already have had her sights on Miss Clark’s school at The Chestnuts. When the property became available, Hannah took up the tenancy and established a private ladies’ boarding and day school. Her first advertisement misspelt her surname.

Hannah prepared her pupils for the Cambridge University Local Examination, among the first standardised exams in England and a rare undertaking for girls at the time. The path to recognition for women at Cambridge was long and fraught. Girton College opened in 1869, followed by Newnham in 1871. Women could attend lectures, often with restrictions, but were denied degrees until 1948. To support her ambitious curriculum, Hannah employed a Resident Foreign Governess by 1883.

In 1887, Hannah’s pupil, Florence Lugg (16), passed the junior Cambridge University Local Examinations. Florence, from Hartlepool, was the daughter of a schoolmaster. Her enrolment at The Chestnuts was a mark of confidence from a discerning parent. The following year, Florence, along with Ethel and Nellie Criswell and Lillian Bane, passed Trinity College music exams.

Hannah was keenly aware of the value of publicity. In July, her pupils held what had become the annual exhibition. Crayon, oil, and watercolour works of a decidedly superior quality were much admired, alongside needlework and knitting. Music was performed during tea by pupils, and Dr Grove awarded prizes. The audience included many of the town’s leading ladies.

To read more instalments about this house, click The Chestnuts. To view stories of other interesting houses and their residents in St Ives in the style of David Olusoga's BBC television programme, click A House Through Time. To access more topics on the social history of St Ives, its resident and the surrounding area, click St Ives 100 Years Ago.